She was diagnosed by serious professionals as having partied too hard, as being bipolar, schizophrenic, psychotic and probably a few more fun things from the DSM manual. It is Cahalan’s journey through this hostile environment that is one of the main foci here. It sure seems like a lot of the weapons being used today are as old fashioned as spears and tomahawks. Maybe the brain is the real final frontier. It is amazing, in the 21st century, how much we do not know about the human brain. Susannah Cahalan - image from Reader's DigestĬahalan’s is a tale of survival.

On the other hand, grand mal seizures can be so convincing.

A tour of New York psych and neuro pros did not yield much more than a suspicion that she had been partying too hard. She suffers from loss of appetite and begins having out-of-body experiences and wild mood swings. She starts having episodes of paranoia, becomes hypersensitive to sound, light and cold. Susannah Cahalan, a young journalist working at a great (ok not so great, kinda schlocky actually) metropolitan newspaper, suddenly notices things going awry. Loved this book couldn't put it down, and went back to work with a renewed sense of purpose. A fine balance of personal story blended with real science. It was a page-turner-and it was also all true.

It's incredibly well written, and the author does a remarkable job about being open and honest, in even unflattering ways, to be true to the story and to present an accurate picture of just what this terrifying disease can do to you. She considers herself incredibly lucky, and wrote this book to raise awareness about people elsewhere who may be misdiagnosed. The rest of the book is a race against time as her family and the health care professionals around her try to solve her mysterious illness and ultimately save her life in the nick of time. With the young woman who wrote this book, you see her pass through various stages of psychosis-hallucinations, acting out, narcissisms-that baffle everyone around her until one day she has a seizure and is finally admitted to a hospital. In this rare disorder, people often pass through a range of bizarre psychiatric symptoms that lead to catatonia and then often death as the body becomes unable to regulate itself, as with the patient I cared for in ICU. Over the course of caring for her, her sister mentioned this book. Her complex and terrifying journey through this disease in ongoing. I took care of a patient with this tragic and intriguing disorder.

Brain on fire cahalan